Veterans For Peace Chapter 111
  • Home
  • Tipping the Scale
  • Mission
  • Events and Announcements
  • Media
  • Letters and OpEds
  • Contacts
  • Chapter Minutes
  • Chapter Bylaws
  • Charter

US Navy plans to wage war on the Olympic Peninsula

11/14/2014

6 Comments

 
Picture
By Gene Marx
November 28, 2014


According to recent articles in Truthout and the Tacoma News Tribune, the US Navy plans to intensify its Northwest Electromagnetic Radiation Warfare training program in Military Operations Areas (MOA) over the Olympic National Forest, where as early as September of next year it will operate 36 of its EA-18G "Growler" supersonic electronic attack aircraft as low as 1,200 feet in order to conduct war games with mobile electromagnetic radiation emitter towers, transmitting from 15 permanent sites. While the jury might still out on the possible damage to wildlife in the area from ECM emissions, continuous electromagnetic radiation has definitely been linked to various cancers in humans, particularly children. 

The area in question is the Olympic Peninsula, including the Olympic National Park and Olympic National Forest, as well as cities and communities, for 260 days per year, with exercises lasting up to 16 hours per day. The damage to flora and fauna in Washington State could be monumental and precedent setting. With so much at stake, the Navy has provided almost no advance notification to local Peninsula communities, with only one joint Navy/Forest Service and community meeting in Forks being held so far. The USN and USFS notifications had only appeared in Seattle and Aberdeen newspapers, weeks before the communities most impacted - Port Angeles, Forks, Pacific Beach - had any clue, nearly missing the USFS deadline for comments, extended only recently until November 28. Another meeting with Navy and USFS reps is scheduled for November 19 at Pacific Beach.

I am not an alarmist, but I was trained as an Airborne Electronic Warfare Officer in 1970 and was familiar then with the potential environmental damage these training routes could cause. While the Military Operations Area (MOA) over the Olympic Peninsula has been used for years for readiness training, the Navy's recent Environmental Assessment of this EA18G version is sorely lacking new science regarding possible adverse effects on flora and fauna, with most data at least five years old. Noticeably missing also is adequate information for USFS decision makers to consider regarding daily low-level flights of the noisiest, most polluting aircraft in the Navy inventory. At a minimum the Navy assessment, which also lists alternative locations, cries out for an independent Environmental Impact Statement before the USFS is allowed to unleash these electromagnetic war games on steroids on the Northwest's most pristine wilderness.


6 Comments
Debra Dangelo
11/15/2014 02:45:18 am

Thank you.

Reply
Ernest Goitein
11/15/2014 12:19:32 pm

How can we be effective in opposing this? is there petition site/

Thanks, Ernie

Reply
Gene Marx link
11/16/2014 12:24:47 pm

Please go on the USFS web site and make a comment. We're trying to flood their comment page with our objections

To make a comment - https://cara.ecosystem-management.org/Public//CommentInput?Project=42759. It would be helpful to point out the noise stressors on wildlife (which the Navy doesn't want to talk about), and that there are alternative locations, some listed in the Navy's own environmental assessment; i.e. the Mountain Home AFB training areas, NW Training Range Complex, NAS Everett Pacific Beach (which would keep them over the water and is already in use).

Here's a link to letters that have already been submitted - https://cara.ecosystem-management.org/Public/ReadingRoom?List-size=25&project=42759&List-page=1.

Thanks.

Reply
Sean Stehura
11/17/2014 04:32:19 am

Call
Derik Kilmer, Congressman, 202-225-5916
Patty Murry, Senator, 202-224-2621
Maria Cantwell, Senator, 202-224-3441

Reply
Nancy Botta link
11/18/2014 06:33:10 am

Go to this page for any and all info pertaining to the Environmental Assessment. "Like "the page then select "get notifications" and become a part of the conversation. This effects us all. I will find the petition and post it here but it's the letters to the forest service that are important.

Reply
Mari Milanoski
11/21/2014 04:22:37 pm

Protect Olympic Peninsula has a comprehensive Facebook page with info on petitions and other info. https://www.facebook.com/protectolypen

Thank you for your post and info took the liberty of posting to my FB page. PEACE

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    The VFP-111 Tipping the Scale blog is not an elite space, reserved for experts or professional bloggers. This is a blog for real people who are willing to share themselves honestly and vulnerably. Please send content to vfp111.org or FB/Chapter 111.

    Archives

    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    November 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    September 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014

Proudly powered by Weebly